Roof estimate - HELP!
I know there have been dozens of discussions here about roofers but I still need advice. My husband and I are buying a building with a pitched roof that has a flat part. The flat part has an active leak and we need a good roofer to look at it and give us an estimate….
I know there have been dozens of discussions here about roofers but I still need advice. My husband and I are buying a building with a pitched roof that has a flat part. The flat part has an active leak and we need a good roofer to look at it and give us an estimate. I’ve read about Premier and LeakMaster on this site. There seems to be a bit of controversy oveer LeakMaster. Can you let me know some good and reliable recommendations? We need to have this estimate as soon as possible. Thanks in advance.
Please call for a free estimate on any type of roofing, or fill out estimate sheet on my web page. cambriaquality.com
Must say, whomever is pushing people to do tear-offs and asking for $20,000 to $40,000 to do it, is certainly making a killing with all the newbie, wealthy brownstone buyers. Think about it, there’s no way the middle class brownstone owners prior to the new generation of brownstone owners paid that kind of money for new roofs. No way. Now I feel better about not letting people scare me into doing a tear-off. $40,000 for a new roof is simply not something we’re going to do because we had one teeny tiny leak.
I would strongly recommend that you contact Fred Ciliotta one of the owners of Premier Roofing. They just did my flat roof in Clinton Hill, inclduding replacing 2 skylights and insulating the attic. Fred was accessbile, fair, and great to deal with. His crew are very skilled men who’ve worked with the company for years (no day laborers)and they were polite and professional. Th job was very well executed and cost around $6,000 including insulation and skylights. Premier has been around for 90 years. Their number is 718/638-3711
Due to the distrubution of weight pitched roofs can only have 3 layers or you risk your side walls bulging and but on a flat roof there risk is not there so more than 3 layers is okay the 3 layer thing is only for pitched roofs
I was quoted 20K, to tear off about 12 layers of old roof, add 2.5-inch insulation board, new rubber roof, two new skylights, and a new Bilco hatch, gutters, misc etc. The roof is 20X50.
If you really want to save money, get some quotes to just lay down a new “rubber” roof on top of the existing roof. Most likely it will be fine and last a long time. Several roofers I’ve spoken to recently recommend Firestone 160.
Contractors charge a very large range of prices. It’s not like buying a can of soup. As I mentioned above, I’m planning on getting a new roof when the weather gets better and since it’s an old building with many layers of roofing and I plan to keep it for a longtime, I’m going to pony up and replace the whole caboose. It’s a multifamily, larger than a brownstone, and I’ve gotten quotes ranging from 20k to 40k and the work includes changing the coping stones, skylight, and stuccoing the bulkhead. The high prices are from large roofing outfits and the lowest bid is from a small Bangledeshi crew.
I imagine, if you scour around, you can find reputable roofers that will replace your Brownstone roof for around 12k. It all depends on who you find, exactly what they do, and what they happen to charge.
I’m not an expert, just a building owner with some experience getting stuff fixed.
But how much IS the whole tear-off and replacement of insulation and roof and all? That’s what everyone keeps asking on Forum, a few times now, but nobody will tell us. Just that we “have” to do it. Which frankly makes me suspicious. Not all renovations can be totally perfect, and high-end. We’re not ALL gazillionaires.
Without a tear-off, a simple “rubber” re-roof of a typical brownstone shouldn’t cost more than $2500.00 max.
To properly change a 100 year old roof, you MUST tear off everything and install new insullation and a new roofing material — whatever type you choose. Only roofers looking to make a quick buck will tell you otherwise.
It’s a question of if you want to repair or replace. When I put a new roof on one of my buildings this summer, you can bet I’m going to do it right.
The only controversy I’ve seen over Leakmaster is it seems his competition comes on here and bashes him. We used Leakmaster for our roof replacement. I have to confess I know nothing about flat roofs! So I’ll be able to tell you a few years from now how the roof holds up. But from what we can see it looks good, and was a fair price, and Nick at Leakmaster was a pleasure to deal with. Leakmaster does not to tear-offs though, and something I learned later on is there needs to be a tear-off of the old roof(s) if there are 3 or more layers on there. Because otherwise the roof gets too heavy. I wish I knew that before! But Leakmaster didn’t say anything about that to us. So first find out how many roof layers you have, and if you need a tear-off you’ll have to find a roofer who does that. Which is more expensive. We paid $4500 for the new roof without the tear-off. I have no idea what the normal cost is with the tear-off. Hope that helps. Good luck.